When Aaron Auzins sent me this video from the opening of the Galloping Ghost Arcade (they are promising to send more media as well which I have added to our previous GGA post to keep it condensed) I had an idea. The consistent claim that arcades are dead, that no one wants to go out and play them because they have better options at home, etc. can best be combated by visual examples of arcades packed with engaged players. It’s hard to argue with visual evidence such as this especially if we can get some video from all over the world so if you have a video showing such things, send it in – if not, record some the next time your arcade is packed or you are in a packed arcade. I’ll update this post and point out any updates in the Twitter feed.
Here’s the Galloping Ghost Arcade opening video, just moments after they opened their doors for the first time (8/14/2010)
More later as we get them.
Good God that looks like heaven. If you want variety in an arcade there’s no avoiding it, you’ve got to go old school. Or at least that’s what I think. There are a good 50 or 60 games there I’d like to play for hours each.
You were saying they’re on freeplay to get around the local laws. Does that mean they charge an enterance fee then? I think that’s a good policy. A few of the more successful arcades I used to go to back in the day did that and they were full. There’s one still operating I haven’t been to and the guy uses armbands that change colour after 30 minutes or an hour. So they can tell if someones times up without having staff running about checking.
The deal for the weekend is $15 gets you all day play and this includes play on the Xbox 360s and Playstation 3s in the game rooms. I’m not sure if this will change after the weekend, but if you spend all day at the arcade, $15 is a damn good deal.
Jesus Christ that Super Mario Brothers is loud as fuck haha
Will be interesting to see if they still get that amount of people in after being open for 6 months. After all it was opening night! Lets hope they do as it looks pretty cool.
Looks awesome, but where are the pinballs?
They are in the very back at the moment. I know Doc had Funhouse running and there was another older one I just can’t think of at the moment. He mentioned they were going to soon receive a Twilight Zone and one other machine in the very near future.
The other pinball is Gorgar. He is trying to figure out how to handle the pinball since they will take more abuse and cost more to repair than the average game cab.
When you’ve got 120 old arcade machines to maintain then adding pinball maintenance on top of that could become a bit of a nightmare. Freeplay machines are going to get a hammering.
Molloy, try “are getting a hammering”. I went up today to help get some stuff going again. They gave me a list of fifteen games that had problems to try to work on and let me at the DK and DKjr.
I’d guess I got eight of the fifteen back to working order for at least the time being, DK jr. fully going (needs marquee light and marquee put in), and DK to literally a switch away from playable.
Heard about this arcade and I’ll have to check it out. Looks like a good time with all the old-school goodness. You don’t see a lot of that any more.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be on it being quite this packed after a few weeks.
Especislly considering that they are charging a “flat rate” just to get in. I know everything is on free play and the “flat rate” had to be done to circumvent city law, but that won’t be good for business.